(NEWZIMBABWE) MDC-T victory will spark coup: ex-general

The Generals are real patriots. They will not oversee the destruction of the Zimbabwean state for the benefit of foreign mining interests. By the way, the people will always vote ZANU-PF, because the people will always vote in their own interests. Especially when more and more people find out the role that the MDC has played in destroying the Zimbabwean currency. They are a neoliberal economic hitsquad. Now they are trying to gin up hatred and resentment over what happened in Matabeleland in the 1980s, opening up old wounds just for political mileage. They are staffed with members of the Rhodesian Front (Roy Bennett, David Coltart, Eddie Cross, etc.) who just want to return to their former glory. Economically, they want to receive a few pieces of silver for selling off the the mines and parastatals to the usual suspects - Anglo-American De Beers.

MDC-T victory will spark coup: ex-general
Regime change firewall ... Zimbabwe's military and security chiefs
18/07/2011 00:00:00
by Financial Times

THE role of the military has risen to the top of the political agenda as Zimbabwe’s fractious coalition debates the prospect of fresh elections in 2012 or, if President Robert Mugabe has his way, before then.

The question haunting members of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party that joined Mugabe’s Zanu-PF in a coalition government after violently disputed elections in 2008, is how the security establishment will react if Tsvangirai wins and becomes commander-in-chief. Serving and former commanders have been making menacing comments.

Brig Gen Douglas Nyikayaramba, a commander in the national army, recently accused Tsvangirai of being a “national security threat” and stooge of western powers. He added in comments to the Herald, the state newspaper, that: “We will die for him [Mugabe] to make sure he remains in power.”

Although many observers suggest such bellicose statements are posturing and that even Zanu-PF has distanced itself from his statement, the brigadier’s views are not unique among the security establishment, which has benefited most from the continuation Mugabe’s 31-years in power.

Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi, a retired brigadier general who is principal director in the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs, told the Financial Times that an MDC-T victory could “mean from the extreme either the military could stage a coup or Zimbabwe could go to war”.

“I’m talking to you exactly how a lot of us feel,” he said. There was zero trust between the military and the MDC-T, he explained, arguing that he and others in the officer class believed the party was bent on reversing “the gains of the liberation struggle”.

“The MDC-T mistrusts the military and we, to the last man, particularly the [liberation] war generation, we mistrust the MDC-T completely,” he said.

“The leading establishment in the military are from the liberation struggle … we have grown up [with] and were groomed by Zanu-PF, it’s what we are. The MDC-T represents a threat to everything we represent.”

Fighting talk of this kind has highlighted the need for the MDC-T to push through security sector reform before envisaging fresh elections. But the party remains in a weak position to get its way.

During 2008 polls, military units were allegedly involved in the violence. The bloodshed caused Tsvangirai to opt out of a presidential run-off and ultimately join the government in which Zanu-PF retains control of the security apparatus.

The country has enjoyed relative stability since then, with the economy tentatively recovering after a disastrous era of hyper-inflation.

But there have been reports of fresh military deployment in rural areas, which Zanu-PF opponents describe as a pre-election strategy of intimidation. Zanu-PF officials dismiss the allegations, while insisting that security reform will not be on the agenda.

Against this backdrop, political tensions have been on the rise.

Analysts say that even if the MDC wins most votes at the ballot box, it has few levers of power to ensure results would be respected as long as the security agencies are aligned to Mugabe.

“In the last 10 years in particular the foundation of the Zimbabwe state has been patronage and violence, or the threat of it, and the main beneficiary is the military hierarchy,” said Ibbo Mandaza, a former Zanu PF stalwart of Zanu-PF who heads the Sapes Trust think-tank.
“It started to change in the last few years, let’s say 2002, and it’s more blatant since the flawed election of 2008.”

Tendai Biti, the finance minister and prominent MDC-T member, takes it a step further, claiming the military has anointed itself in the role of kingmaker.

“They want to determine the president that they want and the president that they will salute,” he said, qualifying this by adding that it was only a small elite section of the military involved.

The MDC-T appears to have put its faith in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the regional bloc led by South Africa that brokered the coalition deal and is monitoring the political process. Once seen as a weak body that lent support to Mugabe’s rule, it has toughened its language this year.

Coups are out of fashion in sub-Saharan Africa and have led to other countries, including Madagascar, in the SADC block being ostracised. This has raised MDC-T hopes that the bloc would also strongly resist a stolen election or military intervention in Zimbabwe.

“The resolution of Zimbabwe’s crisis is no longer a foreign policy problem for South Africa, but it’s a domestic policy problem,” said Jameson Timba, another MDC-T minister.

“There are … Zimbabweans in South Africa putting pressure on jobs and services, therefore there’s a commitment to resolve the crisis because it’s in their interests.”